


Temptation

by the_blue_fairie



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23912002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_blue_fairie/pseuds/the_blue_fairie
Summary: In "Happiness Is," we see the Idol of Vershaftsbezeigungengien try to manipulate Rapunzel's mind in order to prevent her from destroying it, but what if the idol was manipulating the minds of the whole trio atop the temple, trying to survive? What if they all saw different things? This is what Cass sees.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 83





	Temptation

The idol had many voices.

On the beach, it had laughed with Cassandra in the jocund voice of her father. It had sung with the twang of the blade.

But atop the temple, it was desperate.

It sensed its death.

Rapunzel’s cry of defiance was for the ears of only one sea of specters – her own. Her words rang out to meet them, but echoed back upon herself, for the figures before her were but shadows... substanceless things. _She_ was the thing with form.

At least, it was an edifying echo…

An echo to give her strength.

Cassandra was not so lucky.

Atop the temple, Cassandra clung to Rapunzel. She saw her face, jagged with the will of one defiant of demons, before her own – hair cascading in what must have been the howl of the wind.

But the idol’s whispers were subtler to Cassandra, so that though she knew the wind was blowing, she hardly felt it.

She had been the first among the riotous company to break from the idol, to feel the clarity as she crushed Pascal within her fingers, to heed Rapunzel’s plea.

She was strong. She knew she was.

But she kept her eyes upon Rapunzel, formidable as the rocks that stood against the crashing surf, lest her strength give out to the _other Rapunzel_ on the edge of her sight.

Had she expected her father?

She could have faced her father – even if he threatened to turn the song of his saber against her – perhaps most especially if he had done that. Cassandra was in her element with a sword, after all.

She _had_ faced her father – and not as phantom – in the flesh –

What was the idol playing at?

She pretended she did not know – and that pretending was what softened her strength, for she knew she was pretending.

She acknowledged it.

Acknowledged the thing skirting at the edges of her soul, that she had not felt in dreams, in the softest moments (that she _had_ felt, but had not known she had felt – because her conscious mind had called it friendship, had called it devotion, but not devotion of that sort… devotion of a guard to the princess… that was all…)

(All the lies wreathing her mind… and the idol knew the truth.)

The idol was a liar.

A thing without mind, without heart, without form.

And yet it knew the truth.

A spineless, skinless thing intent on saving its own skin – but in its last act of desperation…

(Was she double the liar the idol was?)

Cassandra kept her eyes upon Rapunzel, upon the Rapunzel whose skin she touched, the Rapunzel she held close, for assurance… for constancy.

“The people I love are what make me happy and I won’t let you hurt them anymore!”

_“She loves you… but not in the way that you love her. She never will.”_

Rapunzel’s voice was clear as a fine ocean breeze, but _Rapunzel’s_ voice was a rustle as of the swathing of a corpse before casting it into the sea…

As of the plunge before it struck the water.

_I don’t know what you mean._

Cassandra could not have spoken. By the movement of Rapunzel’s lips, only a moment had passed.

But for Cassandra, that moment was longer than the temple had stood, than the island had been cradled by the waves…

_“Why are you holding on to her?”_

_Because… because she’s my friend…_

Cassandra did not speak, but her voice was fragile.

_“Is that the only reason?”_

Cassandra did not turn her gaze from the true Rapunzel’s face, but felt the smirk of the false Rapunzel in her tone.

_“Doesn’t it give you pleasure to be this close to her?”_

_Shut up…_

_“To feel her skin against your own?”_

_Shutupshutup…_

_“Aren’t you ashamed of stealing these moments of pleasure from her? When you know that her heart belongs to another?”_

_You just want me to let her go so then you can slip in and make me stop her from smashing you!_

_“Would you? Stop her?”_

_SHUT UP!_

_“You would, wouldn’t you? Because you know in your heart that it’s better this way. I can give you what you’ve always yearned for… and Rapunzel doesn’t have to be hurt… She can stay with Fitzherbert… She doesn’t have to know about your desires, your dirty-mindedness… And you can have…”_

_I can have sand on a barren isle_ , Cassandra thought sullenly – and the fragments of the moon seemed scattered in the sky, the burning wheel of the sun reeling over and over across the firmament as though in each second a life-age wore away…

 _“So… selfish…”_ The false Rapunzel’s voice was ancient with knowledge, dripping with it like starfire among the crumbling heavens… _“Selfish… jealous… covetous… possessive… Traits unbecoming of a protector, of a friend…”_

Cassandra felt so small.

A child with figures looming over her in an orphanage.

A child with the Captain of the Guards looming over her, when he was not yet father, but a man unknown.

A prostrate form in a convent of her nightmares, the dark-robed sisters like long shadows in the torchlight.

_“You long for her truly – no shadow will suffice – although you know she is not yours to have. You gird yourself with the armor of honor, of dignity… but deep within, you’re greedy…”_

_My love isn’t like that_ , Cassandra whimpered, not sure if she was protesting to the idol or to herself. But in that doubt, she felt her fingers slip from Rapunzel’s body. Rapunzel’s countenance, Cassandra’s one guiding star in that nether-realm, was lost behind a shred of cloud. Yet still Cassandra seemed to make her out, flickering dimly like an object of devotion in a sister’s cell. The cell would have been cold, bare – with a single window slitted high above, but from there the morning light would shine through upon the icon that she held in her heart. Beyond, the music of the world would murmur in sunlight, but Cassandra would fix her heart upon that glinting image, more sacred than the siren-song.

She had joined the sisters in abjection and idealization after all, then, her longings in the world never hers to touch. But she could keep the faith if the faith was Rapunzel…

Couldn’t she?

Her heart weak, Cassandra’s eyes darted askance to a Rapunzel brighter than any decorative symbol, than any ray of the sun – a Rapunzel whose hair put the life-giving star to shame, whose hair was the gold of fire and not painted gold. In the haze, she seemed more real than the reality, and then her kiss burned Cassandra’s lips like a brand – a mark of her succumbing, for she did not resist, a mark for her to bear like a shackled convict that the proud guards brought to justice…The kiss burned her sweetly, like the burning juices of the fruits of the isle, and she told herself she did not resist because she was in shock, but _“Shock? Oh, is that all?”_ was whispering in her head, but, _“Your love is not like that? Oh, indeed?”_ was in her head – all the myriad hisses of the idol like so many adders fanged.

And then, breath hot against her like the spices of the air, the bright Rapunzel spoke not a taunt but an entreaty – her voice was so soft, like the true Rapunzel’s voice, and her eyes were soft, but soft with compassion, with requited love: _“Cass, please, we can be together.”_ And Rapunzel’s voice was fragile, like an orphan crying all alone – and then a voice rose like a tempest over a calm sea:

“Happiness doesn’t come from a thing. It comes from inside my heart!”

Cassandra wished the thought, _You’re not real,_ could have flashed across her mind like sword-steel in a millisecond that lasted an eternity, wished the idol could have protested, gestured to bold and defiant Rapunzel at Cassandra’s side and then demanded, _“Will this be enough?”_ so that Cassandra’s declaration of, _Yes, this will be enough_ , could have been a rebuke – a rebuke with same fierceness as Rapunzel’s own. But time sped with fickleness so that the thoughts came only after Rapunzel had raised the stone aloft, only after the princess brought her hand down, only after the false Rapunzel screamed and split like lightning forks and was gone.

Rapunzel’s words echoed back to the princess, edifying her as she held her friends in her arms.

Cassandra’s words echoed back from the void – and her own heart whispered what the idol might have whispered, but had not.

_Will this be enough?_

_Yes, it will._

_(Liar.)_

“It comes from inside my heart!”

_But what if thorns prick my heart, make it bleed, corrupt it?_

_What if my heart is tainted, not with love, but with selfishness?_

_This whisper doesn’t come from the idol. The idol is dead._

_This comes from… inside my heart…_

Cassandra wanted to lie to herself, to tell herself that she was better than this, but she could not.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first Cassunzel piece. I finally started watching Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure all the way through about a week ago, and after watching "Happiness Is," this came to mind. I hope you felt I did the emotions of the story justice and, please, drop a review to tell me what you think! I hope you enjoyed!


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